A Sign of The Times :: By Dale V. Nobbman
The talented English singer Petula Clark had a hit song in 1966 titled ‘A Sign of the Times.’ The song had absolutely nothing to do with the Biblical ‘signs of the end times’ we will focus on in this article, but there was just something about the song title that intrigued me even back then.
Every decade has its own signs of changing times. Back then, the Vietnam War was coming to a boiling point, with many protests in the United States. There were racial and civil rights issues. It was harder to borrow money or get mortgages because of higher interest rates and inflation. Even the U.S. government was feeling a financial squeeze because there just wasn’t enough money to finance both a war in Vietnam and a War on Poverty. The use of illegal drugs was beginning to increase, and even the popular music most teenagers listened to was changing fast.
Fast forward to the 21st century, and the signs of the end times seem to be multiplying faster than rabbits with each passing year. Not really a surprise since the Bible prophesied such a time in human history would occur at an appointed time set by God, resulting in the ‘end of time’ as we have known it over the last couple of millennia. This should intrigue everyone.
Biblical scripture says that the ‘signs of the times’ will continue to increase and get worse in intensity and frequency, just like a mother’s birth pangs. Our national signs in the United States, international signs around the world, and cultural, societal, and moral signs around the globe continue to compound and get worse and worse by the year at an unprecedented rate of speed.
It seems things are getting so bad these days that perhaps we have reached the time in the ‘signs of the times’ where God is giving depraved minds over to their delusions, as the Bible says will happen at some point in God’s timing, before the pre-Tribulation Rapture and Jesus’ return.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”
“Therefore, God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise.
“For this reason, God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done.
“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:21-32).
If these Bible verses do not exactly sound like what is happening in the USA and the world today, then I do not know what does. They describe precisely our current sad moral situation, which seems to dominate our daily newscasts and talk shows more and more with each passing day.
I know that I have never witnessed the current level of corruption, deception, insane hatred, maniacal and deranged lunacy, lying, unrestrained hysteria and delirium, mocking, pure Satanic evil influence and possession, and assorted other craziness, all happening at the same time at all levels of government, in schools and a majority of mass media outlets, in the public squares, and even in the world of sports and so-called entertainment. And I have never heard so many adult professionals and governmental leaders spew so much cussing and swearing. It is all at unprecedented levels in my lifetime. If these are not the end times we are living in, then I cannot imagine how bad things will be in the ensuing years going forward. Only God knows!
But the things mentioned above are not the only signs trending us into the end times.
Israel, God’s chosen people, will always be front and center in end times activity. Add in materialism, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, apathy, persecution of Christians, spiritual warfare, heavenly signs, and more—it is then that we will see the rapid end-time signs come into clear focus.
And God makes it perfectly clear in the Biblical book of Isaiah what He will do during the end times to those people who have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.
“I will send them great trouble and choose harsh punishment for them and will bring on them what they fear and dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They deliberately sinned and did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me” (Isaiah 66:4).
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).
It is becoming clear why the United States of America is not specifically mentioned in Biblical end-times prophecy. Either the USA will continue to decline and fall from God’s grace due to increasing and greater moral decay, or it will be incorporated into the European coalition, or it may be invaded by an enemy, or it will likely become a weak and powerless nation at the time of the Rapture when it will be decimated by the loss of millions of its patriotic Christian citizens.
Christians already know there is a simple remedy God has offered to anyone to help us face the future optimistically as this world continues to become a darker and darker place to live.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son [Jesus Christ], that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Yes, it is as simple as that.
I pray YOU will take God up on his offer!